Opened cold and poured hard from a 473ml can into a willi becher. Opaque and still, the head thin and mocha-coloured, gone inside thirty seconds.
Side Project have built this on maris otter / crystal with Willamette in the kettle. 13.1%, 40 IBU: unremarkable numbers on paper, and the beer is better for it.
Spend a minute with the glass before drinking, because the nose is the best thing here. The palate is honest and a little plain after that introduction, though nothing about it is wrong.
At 13.1% this is a one-glass beer whatever the label suggests, and it warms up faster than it drinks. Twenty minutes in, the Willamette has receded and what is left is sweeter, rounder and considerably less interesting. Drink it over an hour or share it.
The barrel is doing real work here rather than decorating the label. Oak tannin frames the finish, and the spirit character sits underneath the beer instead of on top of it, which is the difference between an aged beer and a flavoured one.
Beers like this are why the stout section of this site exists at all. Side Project have been making it for long enough that the consistency is no longer surprising, which does nothing to make it less impressive. If you are anywhere near Maplewood, MO, go and buy it from the source.
Bought at Allocation lottery (rare at the time of writing). A cellar beer. Three years will do it nothing but good.
We will buy this again at full price, which is the only recommendation that costs us anything.
